Nigeria, March 10 -- The political control of the resources of the territory known as Rivers State in Nigeria's Niger Delta has been a site of curious jurisprudence since the Acting Consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate, Harry Johnston, procured the judicial liquidation of King Jaja of Opobo in December 1887 in Accra, present capital of Ghana. The charge against King Jaja was the violation of a treaty obligation to assist the British "in the execution of such duties as may be assigned." At the end of proceedings which lasted less than one day before a forum described by Elvar Ingimundarsson as a "Kangaroo court", King Jaja was convicted and sentenced to exile. The court also prohibited the people of Opobo from designating a replacement fo...